The Constitutional Court on Tuesday heard oral arguments in the case of a woman suing the government for discrimination after being disqualified from serving as a firefighter because she was deemed too short.
In 2018, the plaintiff, surnamed Chen (陳), passed the class 4 firefighter and police certification test, but failed the physical examination as, at 158.9cm, she was 1.1cm short of the height requirement.
The Civil Service Protection and Training Commission a year later rejected her application to be a firefighter, citing the height requirement stipulated in the regulations governing qualifications for police officers and firefighters.
Photo: Screen grab from a Constitutional Court’s video
Chen’s lawyer told the court that the height requirement is discriminatory and that barring Chen from becoming a firefighter is an infringement of her right to work in government.
The requirements that non-
indigenous female police and firefighter applicants must be at least 160cm tall has no rational basis, her lawyer said, adding that setting separate certification standards for genders and ethnicities is discriminatory.
The height requirement for men to join the service is less stringent than for women, as more than 90 percent of 18-year-old Taiwanese men meet the 165cm requirement, but only 45 percent of 18-year-old Taiwanese women meet the 160cm requirement, the lawyer said.
Setting height requirements according to gender and ethnicity is a form of discrimination based on intrinsic and unalterable traits, which is not constitutionally justifiable, the lawyer said.
In addition, the regulation states that physical examinations are to be conducted “when necessary,” which is vague legal language that contravenes the doctrine against ambiguity in law, they said.
Lawyers representing the Ministry of Examination and the Ministry of the Interior said that the rules on height requirements are to help ensure that firefighters and police officers are strong enough to perform their functions, which is legally justifiable.
The opportunity to work in public service is rightfully limited to people possessing appropriate competencies and qualifications, they said.
Establishing standards for a type of service is typically the executive branch’s prerogative, which cannot be challenged without cause, the lawyers said.
Height standards differ according to gender due to fieldwork requirements, they said, adding that the height requirement for indigenous people, who are shorter than the average Taiwanese, is lower to ensure equal opportunities.
The recruiting agency’s order for Chen to undergo additional physical examinations to ensure she met the physical standards is a proper exercise of discretion and demonstration of what necessity meant in the rules, they said.
Removing the height requirement would compromise public safety and could place the lives of first responders at a higher risk, National Fire Agency Director-General Hsiao Huan-chang (蕭煥章) told the court.
Judicial Yuan President Hsu Tzong-li (宗力諭) said the court would deliver its judgement no later than five months after the hearing in accordance with the law.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS